Yeah for the Robot Forum

[OkiePC 14]

I have three different iterations and tons of questions and experiences to share, All three are M410ixx 4 axis robots. One has RJ2 and monochrome TP. Another has an RJ3 with mono TP, and the newest one is a M410iW with an awesome new frame design, and RJ3i with color TP All run different versions of PalletTool, and I have a PalletPRO (RoboSim plus pallet tool for windows) license that I can use for offline modelling, but can only "talk to" the newest machine, so I rarely use it. I am still using the serial port and a laptop with PalletToolPC for generating unit loads. It would be nice to somehow get the robots onto our control systems ethernet network. I am at the point in my exploration with PalletTool, that I think I need to get into Karel programming to have control over certain things, which are hidden away in functions called by the dozens of intertwined TP files. I think I could rewrite the program and make it so much better, but not with my thumbs in the cold packing room! I need to learn how to edit offline and transfer TP files to get past the turd polishing stage of program modifications. I am not impressed with PalletTool robot software for customization, but for the simple cell, it can handle just about any type of palletization and depalletization without any actual programming, just menu driven setup. And its easy to set up unit loads (pallet patterns) with the PC based PalletPC. But the robots are the most reliable machines in our plant including the controls. Only problems have been teach pendant connectors and TP cable, but that is self inflicted because we store the TP in an office and fill the robot cell with steam every night. Anyway, I hope this forum flourishes because the other few robot forums I have viewed are way too slow moving and less well populated. Thanks, Paul Edited 14 Aug 2008 by OkiePC

[splicer480 0]

Hello, I have 5 robots at my plant, 3 Fanuc and 2 Panasonics. One of the Fanucs is a M-410iw also RJ3 controlled. We use it to pick up skids and slipsheets and stack all of our gas can products. It has a 4ft Joulin vacuum head that will pick up just about anything. The head is nice because we don't have to worry about a bunch of different tooling and tool changers, this head does it all. I have always programmed our robots via the teach pendant and have just used a laptop and KFLOPPY software for positioning and program backup. I've seen some palletizing software from fanuc at a robot show in Cincinnati a few years back but I have never used it yet. As far as reliability, you said it right. These Fanucs, and even the Panasonics, are very reliable robots.

[OkiePC 14]

That gripper sounds interesting. I am on the Joulin site now, downloading information. Our vacuum grippers are all made by APS (now out of business). They use 3-1/2" single bellows PIAB suction cups and are assigned to groups or zones for each carton in the pattern. We are running such a variety of case sizes now that the gripper can barely cover them all without adjusting the position of the cups. It is just a matter of time until we end up with a box that won't fit, and I will need to upgrade. I recently replaced a centrifugal regen blower as our vacuum source with a monster vacuum pump to greatly improve the gripping capability. That has allowed me to run the robot at 100% override speed without dropping the biggest 36 pound boxes which we were likely to lose before at that speed. One robot also handles pallets via pneumatically operated hooks that retract when not in use. It would be so nice to have a gripper that would handle all the box sizes without having to adjust it. So, on your Fanuc, do you use the teach pendant to set up unit loads for palletizing? Or, is it a custom program, not using PalletTool in the controller?

[splicer480 0]

Yes, this is the best thing I like about the gripper. It will pick up just about anything and hold it very strong. It has about 400 small individual holes in the head and they all have their own check valves, that way if you pick up something small it only holds that certain section with vacuum, the other valves shut off and don't vacuum at all. I can pick up anything from 4ft long to something as small as a dime. I have a photoelectric sensor mounted on the entry conveyor that can watch for (6) 1 gallon boxes, (5) 2 1/2 gallon boxes, (4) 5 gallon boxes, or (2) long 2 1/2 ft boxes without different sensors or changing anything. Like I said it also picks up wooden skids and cardboard slipsheets too. The Joulin head is French made but their is a distributor in North Carolina where I picked mine up. It has a 20 HP 3 phase 460 Volt AC Vacuum motor and the control voltage for the suction solenoids is 24 Vdc. Here is a pick of the robot and head and the control panel I put together for it.

[OkiePC 14]

Wow, thanks for the information. Can you tell me if the Joulin gripper could work with my existing vacuum pumps? I can generate a very deep vacuum and very high volume of flow. I am using a Busch Mink pump that we just commissioned two months ago. Before we installed the new pump, I could get about 16inHg at the cups with a non porous (plexiglass) plate. Now I can get around 24inHg and run the operation much faster. But, we still have the issue of ever changing box sizes, so the Joulin head looks like a nice, once and for all solution. My only concern, after watching their online movies, was the time delay as the gripper was engaged. I don't know if that is a requirement, or just that the cells being shown did not require it to be faster, but my busiest robot needs to be able to grip the cases in about 1/2 second to keep the overall cycle time acceptable. I think I will give Joulin a call next week. I am also curious about your TP programming. My cells are somewhat complex, with bolth column style patterns, and some that are interlocking, but I keep thinking if I wrote my own code, I could do a cleaner job in certain areas, where PalletTool is either overkill or just too darn convoluted to be easily modified to do the things I'd like. So, splicer, did you use the palletizing instructions within your TP programs? Or do you just use math instructions to keep track of the current layer data? Thanks again, Paul Edited 17 Aug 2008 by OkiePC

[splicer480 0]

I programmed every step of every program from the TP itself. I don't use any math or any preset software (Fanuc wise) mainly because I've never had any to use . We buy our Fanucs second hand from a place called "The Robot Company" It is basically start at step 1, get the skid and slipsheet then stack all the boxes. Check that the finished skid rolled down the automated conveyor and JMP/Label back and do it all over again. Sure there are a lot of checks via the Allen Bradley PLC and a bunch of checks for if the boxes were placed before the robot moves to the next step but it was all put together by myself. The only thing we bought from the Robot Company was the robot and its power supply not any kind of software at all.

[OkiePC 14]

After thinking about it some more, I realized that I would have to still have four zones individually controlled in order to meet the requirements of all my different unit loads. I pick up from 2 to 4 boxes at a time, and drop off 1,2,3, or 4 at a time on the stack, so the one big simple gripper would not work, but I might check into four small ones. So, your palletizing routine is made up of a long string of recorded points? If my products weren't so widely varied, that would actually be simpler than using pallet tool, but we stack over thirty different products and they throw new ones at me at least once a month. But since we have PalletTool already, and I have gotten some of the kinks out of it left behind by the integrator long before I came along, I will continue to use it, and polish and tweak things that I need to. The windows based PalletToolPC offline software is nice for creating patterns and downloading them and a big time saver for me too. There are only a couple of things left that I can't seem to control exactly as I'd wish, seems some of the stuff is buried in Karel function calls that I don't have the tools to open and edit. Paul